APA's Planning Advisory Service is a community of planners — the kind of neighbors who don't mind sharing the contents of our toolbox.

Power ToolsAPA's Planning Advisory Service (PAS) will keep you ahead of the curve. The next time a new project lands on your desk, don't scramble — just turn to PAS for the answers you need. Whether you're rewriting your sign ordinance or evaluating your community's solar energy potential, your organization's subscription to PAS means you'll always know what the experts are saying and what's working for communities like yours.

Take a look at what's in the Planning Advisory Service toolbox

Subscribe to PAS

PAS is not just for APA members! Any public agency, private firm, nonprofit organization, or library can subscribe to PAS. When your organization subscribes to PAS, you and all of your co-workers get the confidence that comes from knowing you'll always have the right information at your fingertips:

  • Quarterly PAS Reports that offer industry-standard guidance on everything from planning for climate change to fiscal impact analysis
  • Unlimited access to a team of on-call researchers at the Inquiry Answer Service
  • The bimonthly PAS Memo, a concise look at solutions that are working for other planners right now
  • A growing series of briefing papers, PAS QuickNotes, that can help you explain planning concepts to officials, the public, and new staff
  • Dozens of PAS Essential Info Packets, collections of sample ordinances, how-to guides, and recommended reading on topics like complete streets and RLUIPA

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PAS for the Whole Office

When your organization subscribes to the Planning Advisory Service, everyone in the office gets access to PAS resources.

Make sure everyone in the office has access

PAS Recommends

You can search the APA Library's catalog of more than 4,200 planning publications online. Or use the library's new Planners Bibliography for annotated listings.

Learn more about the APA Library

APA's Energy and Climate Database offers a unique look at how communities are integrating energy and climate change issues into planning.

Search the database

Solar Energy

Thanks to a partnership with DOE, ICMA, and ICLEI, APA is extending assistance to all planners, public officials, and solar advocates looking for information about how to promote solar energy use.

Ask a question aboout solar energy

PAS Subscribers: Get Started Here

Log in to My APA at right to take advantage of your organization's subscription to PAS. You'll have full access to current and back issues of PAS QuickNotes and PAS Memo, the full series of PAS Essential Info Packets, and digital PAS Reports. You can also borrow bound copies of PAS Reports and submit your questions to the Inquiry Answer Service.

This Month at PAS

December 2012

You Asked. We Answered.

How are planners using infographics in their work?

Find out how we answered

The Rules That Shape Urban Form

The latest PAS Report analyzes six approaches to "form-based" zoning, using case studies from Austin, Texas; Mooresville, North Carolina; Denver; Arlington, Virginia; Livermore, California; and Miami.

Distributed Renewable Energy: Anticipating Energy Development in Communities

Read the latest PAS Memo for an analysis of the policies and incentives that drive demand for small wind turbines, rooftop solar panels, and other distributed generation facilities.

Conditional Uses

Read the latest PAS QuickNotes for an overview of how conditional uses add flexibility to zoning.

Historic PAS Reports

See what planners in the 1960s were learning about recreational equipment storage in PAS Report No. 218.

And check out the whole series of early reports available online.


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